I guess it depends on how you view the hierarchy. I won't include Taker or Lesnar or Sting because they are all part timers. Rankings within tiers can fluctuate.

Tier 1:
Cena (sabattical)
Rollins (injured)
Reigns
Orton (injured)

Tier 2:
Ambrose
Wyatt
Owens
Del Rio
Ryback
New Day
Sheamus

Tier 3:
Cesaro
Rusev (injured)
Ziggler
Breeze
Neville
Barrett
Miz
Kane
Big Show
Stardust

Tier 4:
Swagger
Dallas
R-Truth
Anyone who primarily competes in tag teams

Tier 5:
Anyone else who normally only appear on Main Event and Superstars.

Probably no one from tier 3 or below has a shot at the title.

Any chance hhh buries Seth verbally and strips him of the title on raw so that Seth can come back as face against the authority.

I actually like Bo. I've told people before that, because of the recency bias in evaluating wrestlers, how they are portrayed before a change is nearly irrelevant. The example I give is that, if you have Bo "snap" and go on a win streak until WM, he could be pretty high on the card.

But that doesn't mean that you immediately make Bo (or Jack Swagger or Miz or R-Truth or Heath Slater) the champ. You build them first. You don't make them champ and then make them seem good.

I think Bo is used optimally as a low-card jobber troll heel. I don't get why people want him to be more than that when he excels in that role.

Having Sheamus win it and hold the strap and the briefcase would be kind of interesting.

Obviously then you have him defend it in some random PPV where he loses the strap to whoever, cashes in MITB, and loses again. Would be a fun little ride.

**** Sheamus, putting the briefcase on him is so boring.

Also Rusev is clearly tier 2. Dude came out at WM in a tank. Lol @ ranking Ryback above him.

Face face in the final. Screw Roman on a Dusty finish of some sort. Use it to turn Roman on the company, the fans, his legacy, his family and have him say f it, I'm doing this for me. Have another false finish at December ppv, put the belt up for grabs to the Rumble winner. Rusev wins rumble and takes the strap because of an Authority thug costing Reigns his shot. Maybe Ryback or even Cesaro in a higher slot. Have Reigns exact that revenge and then push to the title shot at WM.

I know that NEVER happens but that's a way to get him over. He needs to turn on the created legacy angle and go loner. Would help if he could cut a legit heel promo

And yes that requires Rusev to hold the strap until Mania. Maybe I'm subconsciously wanting that all along injury be damned.

Crazy that a bad injury may be what the wwe needed to shake things up a bit. I see Roman winning the belt while they try to build a new heel it's the safest play.

It's entirely possible that they've had the rocket on his ass to parallel the way the Rock was rejected when he was pushed as a baby.

The problem is that Roman is void of charisma.

Am I the only one who knows that Rusev is out with an injury? I keep seeing people say that Rusev should win it, so I'm thinking that maybe I'm wrong and he is t out with a biceps injury

In March 2015, Rusev was clearly tier 2.

He hasn't won anything of note since then and was last seen in a "let's stick all the European heels together" stable with Sheamus and Barrett, being punished because his fiance allegedly leaked photos to TMZ.

I heard Rusev was injured but I never heard how long he would be out for.

I'd bet he's going back to being upper card, especially if Lana's back with him.

I'd put the belt on rusev. He's the best heel and roman simply isn't ready

This is why they should have just put the belt on Sting when they had the chance.

Kinda surprised HHHallthebelts.jpg hasn't made an appearance yet

Especially considering Roman v H at Wrestlemania really isn't the worst idea under the circumstances

Yeah I think HHH could be a serviceable transition champion heading into RR and WM season.

HHH could be okay, but man it would be disheartening to see them go the part-timer route again in response to this new situation.

Thank God they don't have Orton available right now.

There's definitely a dearth of bona fide main eventers on the roster right now.

It would never happen, but Vince swallowing his pride and dumping a truck load of money on CM Punk's doorstep would be a great stopgap solution (obv Punk wouldn't since he's doing the MMA thing as well)

Vince swallowing his pride and backing up the truck for Punk isn't really the "never happen" part of that scenario IMO. The acrimonious Vince/Warrior split in August '91 followed by Warrior re-appearing as a surprise at WM VIII ~eight months later tells me that much. Vince will swallow crap if he feels that it's best for business. Punk accepting the money and returning would be the shocking part to me, especially when he seems to be in good financial shape and has another opportunity he wants to pursue right now.

In terms of a dearth of bona fide main eventers on the roster, that is obviously true at the time, but in a case like this I think that it's fine to put the belt on someone and hope that they grow into it. As underwhelming as Seth Rollins's reign felt at times, I do think that if you look at it as a long-term investment, it will pay dividends down the line provided that he can make a full recovery.

Basically: the only way you fix a lack of main eventers is by creating new ones. Yes it would be better if you had more time to build them up, but there are plenty of guys who are at least in a spot where the crowd wouldn't react with "LOL GTFO" if they won.

I haven't watched much since WM but I've kind of been keeping up with things on here.

Any chance they put the title on Rock so they can set up Rock/Reigns where Reigns finally goes full heel and wins? I know Rock has a few movies he's filming but I don't think he has any(where he's the headliner) coming out until next year. His schedule might work out for a return.

The story line basically writes itself.

I wonder if there's any chance joe or balor get the title . Is joe even face in nxt ?